Murder Games

Dr. Dylan Reinhart wrote the book on criminal behavior. Literally - he's a renowned, best-selling Ivy League expert on the subject. When a copy of his book turns up at a gruesome murder scene - along with a threatening message from the killer - it looks like someone has been taking notes. Elizabeth Needham is the headstrong and brilliant NYPD Detective in charge of the case who recruits Dylan to help investigate another souvenir left at the scene - a playing card.

The Mist

In the wake of a destructive Maine summer thunderstorm, an impenetrable mist descends from the direction of a local military facility and infiltrates the small town of Bridgton. David Drayton and his son, Billy, are dragged into a living nightmare as unnatural and violent forces concealed by the mist begin to emerge, wreaking havoc in their wake.

The Black Book

Billy Harney was born to be a cop. The son of Chicago's chief of detectives, whose twin sister is also on the force, Billy plays it by the book. Alongside Detective Kate Fenton, Billy's tempestuous, adrenaline-junkie partner, there's nothing he wouldn't sacrifice for his job. Enter Amy Lentini, a hard-charging assistant state's attorney hell-bent on making a name for herself - who suspects Billy isn't the cop he claims to be. They're about to be linked by more than their careers.

Now You See Her

A successful lawyer and loving mother, Nina Bloom would do anything to protect the life she's built in New York - including lying to everyone, even her daughter, about her past. But when an innocent man is framed for murder, she knows that she can't let him pay for the real killer's crimes.

Crazy House

Seventeen-year-old Becca Greenfield was snatched from her small hometown. She was thrown into a maximum-security prison and put on Death Row with other kids her age. Until her execution, Becca's told to fit in and shut her mouth...but Becca's never been very good at either. Her sister, Cassie, was always the perfect twin. Becca's only hope is that her twin sister will find her. That perfect little priss Cassie will stop following the rules and start breaking them before it's too late.

Guilty Wives

Only minutes after Abbie Elliot and her three best friends step off of a private helicopter, they enter the most luxurious, sumptuous, sensually pampering hotel they have ever been to. Their lavish presidential suite overlooks Monte Carlo, and they surrender: to the sun and pool, to the sashimi and sake, to the Bruno Paillard champagne. In the morning's harsh light, Abbie awakens on a yacht, surrounded by police. Something awful has happened - something impossible, unthinkable. Abbie, Winnie, Serena, and Bryah are arrested and accused of the foulest crime imaginable.

Step on a Crack: Michael Bennett, Book 1

The nation is mourning after the death of a beloved former first lady, and the most powerful people in the world gather in New York for her funeral. Then the inconceivable occurs. Billionaires, politicians, and superstars are suddenly trapped within one man's brilliant and ruthless scenario. Detective Michael Bennett is pulled into the fray. He's just lost the love of his life and faces raising his children alone ¿ and rescuing 34 hostages.

Nooners

Everyone who knows Tim says he's a good guy. But the popular advertising exec has a problem: A lot of the people who know him are getting murdered. And by the time he figures out why, Tim won't feel so good anymore.

Don't Blink

New York's Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons--the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels is conducting a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy. Shocked and shaken, he doesn't realize that he's accidentally captured a key piece of evidence. Ensnared in the city's most sensational crime in years, Nick investigates for a story of his own.

1st to Die: The Women's Murder Club

There's a killer on the loose in San Francisco, and he's stalking newlyweds. When the usual procedures to stop him don't work, four women, each holding a piece of the puzzle, form a Women's Murder Club to collaborate outside the box and pursue the case. 1st to Die is the start of a new series of crime thrillers from James Patterson.

Invisible

Everyone thinks Emmy Dockery is crazy. Obsessed with finding the link between hundreds of unsolved cases, Emmy has taken leave from her job as an FBI researcher. Now all she has are the newspaper clippings that wallpaper her bedroom, and her recurring nightmares of an all-consuming fire. Not even Emmy's ex-boyfriend, field agent Harrison "Books" Bookman, will believe her that hundreds of kidnappings, rapes, and murders are all connected.

PerryMartinBookReviews says:"Does a serial killer exist if no one knows?"

Stingrays

When a teenager goes missing on a Caribbean beach, the local police are baffled. It's up to the Stingrays, a world-class team that solves the unsolvable, to unearth the truth - a truth that no one will believe.

Truth or Die

After a serious professional stumble, attorney Trevor Mann may have finally hit his stride. He's found happiness with his girlfriend, Claire Parker, a beautiful, ambitious journalist always on the hunt for a scoop. But when Claire's newest story leads to a violent confrontation, Trevor's newly peaceful life is shattered as he tries to find out why.

Never Never

Harry Blue is the top sex crimes investigator in her department. She's a seasoned pro who's seen it all. But even she didn't see this coming: her own brother arrested for the grisly murders of three beautiful young women. Harry's been sent to a makeshift town in a desolate landscape - a world full of easy money, plenty of illegal ways to spend it, and a ragtag collection of transient characters who thrive on the fringes of society.

Judge & Jury

Senior FBI agent Nick Pellisante is closing in on the notorious mob boss "The Electrician", when the scheduled sting goes spectacularly awry. Two FBI agents are dead, the boss is wounded, and Pellisante vows the Electrician's next move will be from a jail cell.

The Quickie

Lauren Stillwell isn't your average damsel in distress. When the NYPD cop discovers her husband leaving a hotel with another woman, she decides to beat him at his own game. But her revenge goes dangerously awry, and she finds her world spiraling into a hell that becomes more terrifying by the hour.

Dragon Teeth: A Novel

The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America's western territories, even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country, it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils while surveilling, deceiving, and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.

Private

Jack Morgan is a war hero. Returning home from Afghanistan after being wounded, Jack is called into California State Prison to visit his father, Tom, who is serving a life sentence for extortion and murder. Before being incarcerated, Tom ran a private investigation firm called ‘Private’. Tom wants Jack to re-start the company, to make it great again, and gives him access to a $15 million dollar account in the Cayman Islands to do it with.

NYPD Red

It's the start of Hollywood on Hudson, and New York City is swept up in the glamour. Every night, the red carpet rolls out for movie stars arriving at premieres in limos; the most exclusive restaurants close for private parties for wealthy producers and preeminent directors; and thousands of fans gather with the paparazzi, hoping to catch a glimpse of the most famous and beautiful faces in the world. With this many celebrities in town, special task force NYPD Red is on high alert - and they can't afford to make a single mistake.

Mistress

James Patterson's scariest, sexiest stand-alone thriller since The Quickie. Ben isn't like most people. Unable to control his racing thoughts, he's a man consumed by his obsessions: movies, motorcycles, presidential trivia - and Diana Hotchkiss, a beautiful woman Ben knows he can never have. When Diana is found dead outside her apartment, Ben's infatuation drives him on a hunt to find out what happened to the love of his life.

Cradle and All

In Boston a young woman finds herself pregnant - even though she is still a virgin. In Ireland another young woman discovers she is in the same impossible condition. And in cities all around the world, medical authorities are overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, famines, floods, and worse. It all feels like a sign that something awful is coming. Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private investigator, is hired by the Archdiocese of Boston to investigate the immaculate conceptions.

Publisher's Summary

Once in a lifetime, a writer puts it all together. This is James Patterson's best work ever.

Total

For 36 years, James Patterson has written unstopable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written an audiobook that surpasses all of them. Zoo is the thriller he was born to write.

World

All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.

Destruction

With the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide. With wildly inventive imagination and white-knuckle suspense that rivals Stephen King at his very best, James Patterson's Zoo is an epic, nonstop thrill ride from "One of the best of the best" (Time).

I love Patterson's books, and I've loved his cooperative endeavors with other authors as well. Still, this book seemed a bit preposterous and silly -- and this is from an avid reader of fantasy and sci-fi! The performance was very good, and the book had a decent flow and suspenseful feel. Heck, I didn't even mind the ending. Nevertheless, this seemed to be one of those "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" type of things that I just couldn't quite take seriously enough to enjoy, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to be comical. I'll certainly read the NEXT Patterson book, hoping for more.

Listening to this book became a chore.....I felt obligated to keep listening because there was once "good" writing/reading ....I kept hoping the story line would evolve into a Patterson's past terrific story.......is he writing toooooo much tooooo soon....churning out predictable chapters lacking resources to vast to be believable........Looking forward to the return of the author James Patterson .........

Not buying it would have come closer. Patterson outsourced the writing of "his" books long ago and I pretty much quit buying after the disaster of the mutant children books. However, I had an extra credit and literally wasted it on this book.<br/><br/>I have enjoyed books with somewhat similar story lines from other authors. The whole animals united against us has been done many times, but it at least had some sense to it and usually just stuck with one species. This was just moronic. We are to believe that because we drive cars and talk on cellphones that all animals will be somehow mutated to such an extent (basically over the course of a long weekend) that they will band together and start hunting humans down in the cities. It would seem pretty unlikely to me that monkeys, lions, dogs, cats, birds, bears (brown and polar), and bats would all be affected the same way at the same time. It would also be difficult to believe that the effects occurred in lightly developed Africa and New York City at the same time. Many parts of Africa do not even have cell service. We also have to believe that only a few humans are going to have the means to fight back and will not generally use mass extermination methods in doing so. We also have to believe that we can turn off the cellphones (but not necessarily the cell towers) and quit driving and the animals will go home over the weekend basically. Then, when that happens, we will then turn everything back on so that the animals will return to their man eating state without being prepared for them to do so. I'm sorry if that is a spoiler, but it actually makes it sound more intelligent than the book manages to do<br/><br/>

Has Zoo turned you off from other books in this genre?

Does it have a genre other than that of one of the worst written, least logical, novels of all time? It has consigned the cowritten books of JP to the fiery depths of reader hell for me.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Jay Snyder?

The narrator's only major mistake was agreeing to read this book. I didn't have any problem with the performance.

What character would you cut from Zoo?

All of them? The monkey had the right idea when he started eliminating anyone that was introduced.

Any additional comments?

I think I have said enough. If this is ever read, please understand that you should not buy this book. It only encourages the author and his publisher to do more injustice to the reading community.

The book starts off promising with detail,suspense and a likable protagonist. But somewhere in the middle it jumps the shark and skims to an ending. The begining is entertaining in a lite, B-movie kind of way but ultimately falls flat. Since most people listening to the story are not living on the Serengeti, lion and croc attacks do not equal apocalypse. I just could not imagine riots and economic collapse because all of the zoo animals suddenly escaped and started hunting people. But what should have been frightening, family pets suddenly going “rabid”, hoards of rats making coordinated attacks, packs of wolves attacking rural dwellers was not scary either. The cause of the eco-catastrophe is an interesting premise but the book did not deliver the suspense and chills one would expect. And the solution was so contrived and throw together it was laughable. I think if Mr. Patterson would have spent more time developing the story it could have been way better.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. The plot was very thin with numerous implausabilities, even impossibilities. I can only hope that the TV series, which looks to be almost completely different from this story line, is put together better.

What was most disappointing about James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge ’s story?

I have read dozens of James Patterson's books. They are all basically tightly written with reasonably well-crafted plot lines and satisfactory endings. This book fails on all levels. There are holes in the plot big enough to put a safari bus through, and I cannot help but believe that the authors did little computer research on the Ochavango Delta in Botswana and no in person research. The plot mechanism of shutting off the power grid and cellular service world wide was laughable and one could not suspend disbelief long enough even to enjoy the story. The plot was thin and did not provide anywhere near the level of interest to keep me wanting to move ahead in the story. I only kept going because I thought it had to get better. It didn't. A truly lame novel.

What about Jay Snyder’s performance did you like?

Great voice, gender, and accent characterizations! Wonderful performance of a lame book.

Would you consider the audio edition of Zoo to be better than the print version?

I think that the book in print was better but the audio version was incredibly good too. I loved the inflections in the narration, the plot and how things we as a human race take for granted can change not only how our planet "behaves" but can cause such striking and eventually even long term changes in the animals on this planet. If all animals went "crazy" we would be well and truly in deep trouble.

Who was your favorite character and why?

While I like the main character I loved Abraham. He is much more developed in the series, the book in print does give a little more on his character as does the audio. Merge all of it together and you have a depth of Abraham as well as the other characters that really is amazing.

Have you listened to any of Jay Snyder’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I really wanted to listen to this all in one sitting but couldn't due to work, grandchild, children, etc. However, it seriously improved my workout time by 45 minutes daily to finish listening to this as quickly as possible.